9th November – They promised us giant tortoises......

Ramiro 

Chris was up and about early and went pelican spotting from the back of the boat before breakfast.  Mum and I both slept in later.  This morning we were taken to Urbina Bay about half way down the west coast of Isabela island. It was a wet landing which involved swinging our legs over the side of the panga and slithering inelegantly into the sea about half way up our calves – or almost up to her knees in Mum’s case.

The sand was very black and fine as was volcanic in origin.  We dried our feet on the towels that were conveniently to hand and put our shoes back on.  Our 1^st spots were a Galapagos hawk and a brown pelican.  Our guide, Ramiro, told us that in 1954 the island had been significantly uplifted by 5 metres so that all that we were standing on was previously under the sea.  You could clearly see that as the black larva had remnants of old molluscs still on them.  We then set off on a circular walk hoping to find a giant tortoise.

Flowers of the muyuyo tree

Unlike yesterday, this part of the island had a lot of plants on it although some weren’t in leaf as it’s still the dry season here.  We saw the incense trees that we saw the 1^st day with their bare white trunks and stems plus some new plants – a tough looking but quite fine leafed mounding couch grass; thorn bushes; masses of salt plants in full flower, although their flowers are tiny but quite beautiful close up; the largest trees on the island are poison apples which exude a white latex when damaged and are apparently in the Euphorbia family; the sticky berry plant or muyuyo which has stunning yellow flowers and a white berry like fruit which is very sticky hence its common name; cotton with its large distinctive yellow flowers, green velvet and a few acacia trees.  We were told that most of the flowers on the island are either white or yellow as they are pollinated by the carpenter bee which can only see those colours.

Land iguna

We saw quite a few birds including a flycatcher, various finches and the Galapagos mocking bird which has the most beautiful song very similar to our song thrush.  There were also quite a few land iguanas and we could see their nests which are just rough holes in the ground which are then filled in after the eggs are laid and we even saw one female guarding her nest. 

We were told that goats had been a major problem on the island as they were competing with the tortoises for the same food.  In 2006, a decision was reached to cull all of the goats which numbered some 2-300,000.  This involved bringing in various hunters and shooters plus dogs with special bootees to protect their feet from the razor sharp larva rocks and neutered female goats pumped full of pheromones to lure the males into a honey trap.  The whole operation took over a year and cost more than $30 million, but was successful in the end.  Not everyone agreed with it though as the dead carcasses were just left where they fell and in the short term led to a huge increase in the hawk population due to the food bonanza. Now, any tortoise eggs are dug up and taken to the central tortoise sanctuary where they are reared and then released back into the wild when they are 6 years old, and gradually the tortoise population is increasing again.

Chris with part of the shell

At this point, Ramiro told us we were very unlikely to see any tortoises as most of them lived above 300 metres and were higher up the slopes of the volcano which was hidden in low cloud!  Why promise us tortoises I thought to myself?  Instead we saw the remains of a shell of a young female tortoise that had died some years ago – what a disappointment!  By then we were almost back at the beach and so rejoined the path by the large poison apple tree and got back into the pangas to be ferried back to the ship.  When we got back on board I discovered that annoyingly, the group behind us (& Americans to boot) led by our favourite guide, Lola, saw a tortoise and she couldn’t believe we’d missed it as she said we must have walked right past it. Grrr.

During lunch, our boat motored back north retracing our steps a bit and has just moored at Tagus bay.  From our cabin, we can see steep grey volcanic cliffs smothered in the bare white trunks of the incense trees.  Some of the cliffs have graffiti on them dating from the 19^th century.  We’ve also spotted the yacht that the Swedish party from Napo lodge have chartered – maybe we’ll bump into them again this afternoon as we came across them rather unexpectedly on this morning’s walk!

This afternoon’s activities include optional kayaking or snorkelling followed by a “strenuous” walk (about 400 metres which includes 125 steps) up the side of a volcano.  We had signed up for the snorkelling, but have cried off and think we’re going to go and sit in the Jacuzzi instead.  We’re hoping that the strenuous walk may be high enough to include some giant tortoises?

It turns out that our choice of Jacuzzi for the water activity was a wise one as the water was choppy so that the snorkelling wasn’t that enjoyable according to some of our fellow travellers.  Comparing stories it seems that Gabriel, the older guide, is the bum choice when it comes to snorkelling.  He just announces that it’s obvious that everyone in the panga is a good snorkeller and then leaps into the water and takes himself off to do his own thing.  Both times he’s been the guide (& we experienced him once), there have been inexperienced snorkelers who have got into difficulty and needed extra help, tuition and encouragement and he’s not been there to help them. 

Half way through the "strenuous walk"

At 4pm we set off for the “strenuous walk” hoping that the description was being over sensationalised to cover themselves.  We had a dry landing and then walked up a slope with some rough natural steps in it to a clearing with an overhang of rock which had various graffiti and carvings in it.  The oldest carving dated from 1836 – the year after Charles Darwin made his historical visit to the Galapagos Islands – fascinating just to see it carved in the rock.  We then climbed the 126 wooden steps and followed a gentle uphill path through the leafless incense trees seeing various finches flitting through the bare branches.  Interestingly, the incense trees “split” naturally in the dry weather and exude a thick resin which smells incredible – I would just love to have this wood available locally in Portugal as our house would smell heavenly!

The 2nd viewpoint

Eventually we reached the 1^st viewpoint which gave us a surprising view over a very saline lake which abutted the sea separated by a low natural barrier of larval rocks.  We continued uphill walking around the lake and came to a 2^nd more spectacular viewpoint looking back over the lake to the sea with our ship in the background.  At this point, we passed the Swedish party again – yes, it really is a small world.  We left 2 of our party here (cruelly nicknamed the Walrus and the Mermaid) and continued on uphill as were aiming for the black rocks in the distance which made up the volcanic cone – Mum insisted on coming with us and amazed lots of people with her tenacity and incredible level of fitness for her age – of course, Chris and I weren’t surprised at all!

Of course, we made the volcanic cone and another surprise awaited us as we had the most amazing view north up the rest of Isabela island and could clearly see the other 2 huge volcanoes and another enormous lake with a high level plateau.  It really was stunning up there and made the whole walk most worthwhile.

We then retraced our steps and had a much easier journey downhill – Mum almost skipping her way down!  It was then back on the pangas, drinkies on the top deck then the briefing about tomorrow’s activities.  We then had dinner with Steve and Debbie, a really delightful couple from Michigan, which I find fascinating as I have never met anyone from there before.  In my ignorance, I never thought there was much there apart from Detroit which has had so much negative publicity, so have been most interested to hear more about it.  They are very well travelled Americans, and like most nationalities, if you’re well travelled, then you tend to be very open and interested in everything and anything, and, of course, interesting in return.